Weekend Sam Report

Exhausted Parent Warning: This won't be a coherent entry.

Sam has taken to telling secrets to his stuffed animals. And when he tells a secret he leans close and whispers nonsense syllables. Snoopy doesn't know the difference. Yesterday this turned into a game where he told secrets to Snoopy, Snoopy repeated them to me, and then I told Sam what the secrets were! This went on for some time. Always fun when the games involve a little creativity.


Sam continues to enjoy the castle. Today Susan had a passel of boys over for a play date, and they swarmed about it, one even asking if he could take some of the little knights home.

In an unrelated note, I've learned how much easier it makes parenting if I can outwait Sam. This evening he needed to take a potty break, but he wouldn't admit it. I eventually dragged him into the bathroom and wouldn't let him leave, but I also wasn't going to haul down his trousers--I figured I would let him handle things himself. He was stalling and resisting, so I said That's fine, I have something here to read. He was interested, of course, so I read aloud. Not something I would normally have read him, a sermon from the recently deceased Catholic priest and writer Richard John Neuhaus. Happened also to be on the topic of death. Sam observed that he didn't want to die, and I allowed as how it will be quite some time before he has to worry about it.

Conflict, potty training, and death. Add in talk of sex and Freud would really be delighted.

Once Sam realized I wasn't going to force him to do anything--just not let him leave until he did--he got right down to business and did what needed to be done like a champ. Success! I am a reed which bends but doesn't break. At least, not that time.

Last image: A really great thing about being a parent is that you have an excuse to watch shows like Sesame Street. This evening after Sam was down Susan shared a great little SS skit called "Put Down the Duckie." It has many cameos of famous people even including Itzhak Perlman. But the most amusing are these two, from the old PBS show Upstairs Downstairs: